This blog is about diseases in wild animal populations – most people can relate to disease in their cat or dog, but disease in wild animals may have very different outcomes, and is approached quite differently by those responsible for caring for our wildlife, such as government organisations (this varies depending on where you live, but could be something like the Department of Environment in Australia, or the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service) or those working at the coalface, such as wildlife health/veterinary or ecology research workers. In addition, as you will see over the first few posts, disease in wild animal populations can have implications far beyond the wild animal population itself, including public health and agricultural industries.

My name is Jasmin Hufschmid, and I’m a Senior Lecturer in Wildlife Health at the Melbourne Veterinary School, The University of Melbourne, Australia. I hope you enjoy the blog – I’d love to hear your thoughts. Let me know if there is a specific topic or wildlife disease you’d like to hear more about.